Golden Heart of Killana

Chapter One

I'm so hungry.

When was the last time I ate?

Yesterday?

The day before maybe even longer than that?

I don't want to steal from anyone.

But I think I'm going to die if I don't eat.

........................

That wouldn't be very good.

I promised my father I would wait for him to come back to get me.

How long has it been since then?

.................................

Months?

Years?

..............................

Ow, my stomach hurts.

I snapped out of my dazed stupor and clenched my stomach as it growled like a rabid bear waking up from hibernation. To distract myself from the hunger pains I looked out into the busy street from my perch on the wooden crate. People were always walking or rushing by me.

They never noticed my presence.

I felt a pair of eyes joined by several others rest on my face as I studied a pebble by the bottom of my crate. I glanced up to see several large men with strange inklings and long braided hair and mangy beards. Pirates most likely.

So why were they staring at me? Shouldn't they have better things to do? Like raid merchant ships or get stupid drunk at a bar?

I avoided their gaze as they approached me with... caution? Why would they be wary of someone like me?

That's when I remembered what my father told me before he left. "Never let your guard down especially around filthy pirates. If you ever face any while I am not with you, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction,"

I really should have started running before the memory occurred to me.

It happened faster than I could process the situation.

The heavy burlap sack engulfed my body and in one fell swoop I was lifted over the man's back.

I had been kidnapped.

I kicked and struggled inside the thick bag that had begun to feel to constraining and hot. It was beginning to get hard to breathe as the heavy cloth walls closed in around my vision. I needed out.

There was not enough oxygen inside the stuffy bag for me to scream for help. Not that anyone would help a homeless, dirty girl. Panic and despair tore into me like a pack of starved mutts. Still I continued to try and fight my way out of the suffocating prison. I froze as a man shouted and I was dropped to the ground like a hot stone.

Pain flared up on my tailbone as I landed making me yelp. I heard more yelling and a few screams. But what made my sweat run cold were the sounds of bodies hitting the ground with dull lifeless thuds.

I clasped her hands over my ears as more gunshots and steel slicing flesh sounded. I looked to see dark crimson blood soak into the burlap making me scream in horror. I wrestled my way out of the bag as tears rolled down my cheeks, creating trails through the dirt on my face. I rocked myself back and forth ignoring the cries of death in front of me only a few meters away. I knew if I tried to run I would be shot. But if I stayed I would be cut down with a sabre.

The options for my impending death were countless.

I looked down at the sand feeling better as the salty scent of the ocean filled my nostrils. If only it wasn't also tainted by the metallic smell of blood and smoke of gunpowder. I could have probably died happier here than starving to death in an alleyway or ditch.

I wonder why they brought me to the harbour? Maybe to sell me off to illegal slave traders. Or drown me for fun.

It became quiet as a pair of black leather boots splattered with blood stopped in front of me.

I raised my head to see a tall man with a large red jagged scar running from under his right eye down to lower jaw just under his ear. His face was shaved which was rather unusual and his eyes were sharp like a hawks. He wore the attire of a pirate captain.

How amusing, to be saved from pirates by a pirate.

He held out his hand which was disturbingly clean and had a silver ring on his middle finger with a round, polished ruby the size of a marble.

"Hello Sara Maine, I'm Captain Red Scar. I've come to collect you," he grinned wolfishly like he was preparing to rip out my throat.

The world tilted sideways and I felt my body hit the sand with a hollow thud. My eyes rolled up in my head as my mind shut down faster than the fish monger on a hot day.